Are Expensive Skin Care Products Really Worth It?

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Have you ever wondered why prices of skin care products vary so drastically across different brands? A regular moisturizer can cost double when it belongs to an strong brand? Are expensive skin care products really worth the money?

Skin care products can be classified into tow major categories:

• Mass Market Products

• Professional Treatment Products

Mass market skin care products are comprised of all the common skin care products and cosmetics available in pharmacies and departmental stores. The prices of mass market products can vary drastically and usually drug store brands are much cheaper than the rest of the brands available at department stores.

Professional treatment products constitute the ones that are used in Dr's offices, salons and spas by skin care professionals and they are usually more expensive than the regular mass market products found at the pharmacy and department store.

Why are professional treatment products more expensive than mass market products?

The prices of skin care products are determined by a number of factors, such as:

• Types of ingredients

• Concentration of active ingredients

• Production costs

• Advertising costs

Druf Store skin care product brands generally contain lower amounts of active ingredients, about 5-10 percent. The major ingredients of these products are water and other chemical fillers usually. That is why their prices can be kept low and affordable as compared to professional brand names.

As compared to the former, skin care products by department stores have relatively higher amount of active ingredients, up to about 25 per cent. Moreover, these brand names have higher production costs and advertising costs that subsequently raise the retail price of the products.

Professional treatment products are even better off. They contain up to 75 per cent of active ingredients and are much more concentrated than regular brands. In fact, certain professional treatment products have almost drug-like benefits. Moreover, they require less time to perform and will most likely heal your skin condition much faster and efficiently. They take a shorter period of time to show their effectiveness because of the higher concentration of active ingredients. These products are not as popular as other department store brand names because they are not mass produced and advertised and are only sold by licensed practitioners.

Are expensive brands better for the skin then?
Skin care products work differently on different individuals. Therefore, you should compare the ingredients and concentration of active ingredients in the various brands. 

Always look through the ingredients list of the products you use or are planning to use. The ingredients are always listed in descending order of their concentration. So the ingredients that are listed first have higher concentrations, while the ingredients lower on the list are are found in lower conentrations

When are Expensive Products worth the Expense?
While there are skin care products that owe their retail price to advertising and marketing costs, there are others that are expensive for good reason. 

Certain skin care products contain ingredients that are scarce, precious or expensive to manufacture. Some products also include patented products that again increase the cost because of commercial reasons. Also, some skin care products are the result of extensive research and development. Because of the extent of the research, the production costs obviously go up and the retail price of products raise as well.

To know if an expensive skin care products can actually be good for your skin, it is important you go through the ingredients and see if there is enough reason to support the cost. If the concentration is fine and the ingredients suit you, go ahead and splurge. But if the retail price is just for the fancy container, you know there may be other options that'll are better for you and your pocketbook!

Dr. Marilynn Syrett is a graduate from Western University of Health Sciences. She has authored several articles about antiaging skin care products including many from Obagi and iS Clinical range of skin care products.